Presence Matters: Geofencing Technology - A Keka Use Case

In the competitive world of sales, maintaining a reliable and efficient sales force is crucial for achieving organizational success. However, businesses often need help with chronic staff absence, which can lead to missed opportunities, decreased productivity, and, ultimately, revenue loss. 

This use case study delves into how Keka, a leading HR and payroll management software company, successfully implemented geo-fencing to combat chronic staff absence within a multi-brand mobile retail chain. By leveraging this technology, Keka streamlined its sales operations, enhanced productivity, and significantly reduced revenue loss caused by employee absenteeism.

An Introduction To Sanjay Mehta’s Mobile Retail Chain

Sanjay Mehta was happy with how well his mobile phone store chain was doing, even though he wanted to do even better. Sanjay was the one who came up with the idea for this multi-brand retail chain with its headquarters in Mumbai. He worked hard to grow his business until it had 36 great stores in India's biggest cities. His steadfast commitment and unique way of managing had turned these shops into places where customers always felt welcome and valued. The sales staff, known for helping customers quickly, went above and beyond to meet everyone's needs. After 35 years of running a successful business, Sanjay felt it was time to speed up the growth of his chain. He plans to open 30 new stores each year.

Rapid growth brings a problem no one saw coming

But the fast growth created a problem that no one saw coming. Sanjay's mobile chain had added 40 new salespeople to its team within six months. Since this was his business's biggest growth, Sanjay put all 40 workers in key spots in the same city. He worked with each store's owners to ensure they were doing their jobs well. When sales started going down in seven newly opened stores, most of which were filled by these newly hired salespeople, this was a bad sign. Many of Sanjay's bosses didn't know he had made his way to measure customer happiness, which showed that customers weren't happy with these shops. Many comments said there needed to be more staff, which hurt sales and the company's image for good customer service.

Getting right to the point—finding the biggest problems 

When Rakesh, the HR manager, and Sanjay's trusted friend, heard about the problem, he acted quickly because he knew how important it was. He set up several talks with Sanjay and other managers to determine what shop managers, sales teams, and buyers thought. Through working together, they found the following problems:

• Some salespeople didn't do their jobs, leaving the shops empty and making customers feel like they weren't important.
• When people went into the stores during busy times, especially after work, they expected to be helped quickly and with care, but that wasn't happening.
• Many new sales staff needed to have the right training to deal with customers, like how to guide them and make them feel welcome.
• Some workers often hung out at nearby shops and took too many smoke breaks.
• The cluster managers who were supposed to visit their shops every day always arrived late.

Everyone loses because of a few bad workers

The effects of these problems went beyond the few workers who were to blame and affected the whole company. Many of the new employees were very enthusiastic and committed to their jobs. However, the uncaring and sometimes careless attitudes of some sales staff members had a big effect and canceled out the work of others. The main reasons for these problems were that people needed to take responsibility for their actions and that methods and processes were required to improve. During busy times, especially weekday nights, customers expected the sales staff to help them quickly with their purchases since they were often in a hurry. Customers went elsewhere if service took time, so there was no room for mistakes.

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